Many a client has told me with great alarm
that his opponent was a Mason, and that one or more leading
Masons were on the jury that were to try the case. I always
refused to challenge a juryman on that account, and I never
found that the man's being a Mason had the least effect in
preventing him from rendering a just verdict. I have many
intimate friends both political and personal in that Order,
although I never belonged to it and never sympathized with
or approved of secret societies in a Republic.
My strength was due to the fact that I had in general the
good will of my competitors. So if any one failed to get
a majority it was easy to transfer his strength to me. Perhaps
also there was a feeling, growing out of the fact that I had
had great experience in public speaking at the Bar and in
political meetings, that I might be able to take a prominent
part in the debates in the House, a faculty which all my competitors
lacked, except Mr. Bird. But chiefly I had the advantage
of the good will of my associates in my own profession, a
body whose influence is always justly very powerful and who
were all, with scarcely an exception, my close and strong
friends.
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